It is known to pull an upwardly projecting main pillar part, to which the covering material of a soft top is held and which is provided with a sealing line extending over its course for sealing with respect to side panes, transversely inwardly at its lower end during an opening of the roof via a pulling member disposed obliquely in the vehicle. The pulling member is a coupling rod with a spherical head at one end hingedly connected to the main pillar part and another spherical head at the other associated with the main bearing at the body side. The transverse inward movement ensures intimate contact of the pillar part with a seal at the window beltline and at the side panes when the roof is in a closed state, and enables roof movement without rubbing contact between the pillar part and these seals or to other parts of the window beltline.
Providing a pulling force over the whole movement results in a continuously uniform inward movement of the pillar part, which frequently does not properly satisfy the external circumstances with an overcoming of the window beltline in the initial stage of the opening movement.
Since the roof has production tolerances with regard to its position relative to the body, a range of coupling rods of different lengths is kept available at the production facility from which the fitting worker selects the suitable one depending on the relative position of the roof. This process is time-consuming and makes an increased logistic effort necessary. A length adjustability of the pull rods would admittedly reduce the number of components to be kept available, but such an adjustment would be even more time-consuming in ongoing production.